Facebookunder maintenance

The security of the United States continues to be compromised by the dataof millions of American Facebook users' in the hands of Russian intelligence.

The Facebook platform presents 'a clear and present danger' to the security of the United States.

Our security demands that we shut the Facebook platform down,before the November elections.

An MSNBC presenter, stated on air, her belief that the Facebook platformhad to be shut down, to prevent its continued use by Russiansto meddle in the 2018 elections. But, MSNBC reacted by shutting her down,and there has not been one mention of that reasonable proposal, since.

​Which begs the question,who speaks for US security, and the public discussion of it.

​E LaMont Gregory1 August 2018​

Financial collapse and crisis follows years of Mark Zuckerberg's precipitous slide into an ethical abyss of conservative politics in the US

​

'Everything that Donald Trump touches, dies'​

'Everything Trump touches, dies', is the title of a book by Rick Wilson.

​Trump touched Facebook and now Facebook is dying.

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was seduced by Conway and Bannon and their tells of the power and influence (the marriage of wealth and political power from which dynasties are made) that would come Mark Zuckerberg's way, if he would cooperate with Cambridge Analytica in their well financed attempt to elect Donald Trump president of the United States. Zuckerberg who had hinted at his own desire to seek the highest office in the land, fell into the Conway/Bannon/Trump/Putin sphere of influence, hook, line and sinker.

And, with Zuckerberg in line, a host of other American IT experts in micro-targeting within the realm of social media, unwittingly, at least initially, became involved.

Conway and Bannon, left the failing Cruz campaign and joined Cambridge Analytica, and with millions of dollars from the father daughter team of Robert and Rebekah Mercer, millions of data points voluntarily supplied to them by Facebook, and with the assistance provided by Russian intelligence, orchestrated the data mining operations that swung the election in Trump's favor. Mercer money in the advance of extreme and radical right politics in America and elsewhere, deserves much more public scrutiny than it now garners, but at this juncture, drawing attention to the Mercer financed seduction of Mark Zuckerberg, will suffice.

Once American counter espionage efforts unearth the fact that Facebook users' personal data reached the FSB/GRU data center computers at the University of St Petersburg, although it has seemed slow to materialize, Facebook's fate and ultimate disgrace was sealed.

Mark Zuckerberg lied to the American people for over a year (advertising paid for in Rubbles) about how he was conducting an internal investigation into, what is the most popular Trump sphere of influence statement, 'nothing' (like the nothing meeting in Trump Tower), the matter was just too small to take up too much time and effort.

In reality, Zuckerberg had knowingly and arrogantly supplied the radical right with a weapon, the ability 'without the explicit consent of its users' to weaponize the personal data of millions of Americans. And, all because Zuckerberg bought into the dream of a race-based nationalist America, run by billionaire oligarchs like himself, in a phrase Zuckerberg has bought into - Trump's vision of America.

Facebook cannot get the data of their users' back from the Russians, and the Russians will mine that data to continue to subvert American elections, as well as, the US stock market, and other equally sensitive institutions.

Yes, other institutions like the stock exchange are as liable to social/psychological manipulation, as are elections. Remembering that the stock market began in the rumor-filled pubs of England.

In an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Facebook is liable for a fine of up to $40,000 for each breach of privacy of anyone of its users', that fine now exceeds the total assets of Facebook (assets 4 billion and falling, potential fines 7 billion and rising), and therefore Facebook is bankrupt.

Through the manipulation of congressional hearings and Zuckerberg's delay-tactic promise to voluntarily make alterations in his business model being highly and widely publicized, the public was left to believe that Facebook would survive.

But in fact, the delay was rather an underhanded way of giving institutional and other large investors time to get their money out of Facebook without the public, smaller investors, knowing there was a run on the bank.

Especially, in light of the fact that the Information Commissioner's Office, the enforcer of the data protection laws in the UK, has just imposed the largest fine allowable, some $664,000, on Facebook, because Facebook either sold, leased or cooperated with Cambridge Analytica in their harvesting of the personal data of millions of Facebook users' data without the users' explicit consent.

​The data was sold, leased or voluntarily passed on to Cambridge Analytica, and from there on to the FSB/GRU by one of their agents working at Cambridge University. The data was not hacked or stolen. This is an act of espionage, not theft.

Facebook is currently under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). It was the announcement by the FTC of its investigation, on the 26th of July, that precipitated the 24% fall in Facebook's share price.

An interesting aside involves John Kasich and his ties to Cambridge Analytica. Kasich knew of the work of Cambridge Analytic (the gang of four) and secured their services, unaware that they were working by that time almost exclusively for the Russian-backed Trump forces, and were using the fees Kasich paid Cambridge Analytica to work against him. Thus, rendering Kasich one of the least aware 'genius' candidates for the presidency in US history. As we delve into the larger picture of the activities of Conway and Bannon, the nothing wrong descriptor, proves false.

And remember that Trump is so confident that Conway's activities and associations with Cambridge Analytica and Russian intelligence were so brilliantly structured that she poses no liability to him, and therefore she has remained on the White House staff. Donald Trump's judgement in these matters, recent history tells us, is not to be relied upon. But keeping Conway in the fish bowl at least lets the public keep her under the same constant surveillance as FBI counter-espionage does.

One may argue, and the lawyer's of the targets of Mueller's investigation surely do, that there was nothing out of the ordinary in the initial contacts by the Trump campaign seeking the services of Cambridge Analytica, since social media campaigns have become an important part of modern internet-based electioneering. The claim is however fallacious given the association between Conway and Bannon, prohibited foreign entities, and the data of millions of Facebook users being spirited away to Russian intelligence computers in St Petersburg. Of course, Page also claims that he was only involved in 'nothing conversations' with Russian intelligence operatives at 'nothing meetings and conferences'.

But the 'patriotic Russians' (in the words of Putin) associated with the Trump campaign, who were actually going to manipulate the data from the American micro-targeting experts, wanted proof that the American micro-targeting group could micro-target within the social media realm with the precision claimed by the Trump campaign associates, with whom they were in contact.

Once that proof was supplied, a more direct line of communication was established between the American IT group and their 'patriotic Russian' IT expert counterparts. The American micro-targeting group supplied their expertise on a continuous basis to hundreds of Russians working within the social-media section of the internet weaponizing group of the FSB.

Espionage always requires local knowledge and expertise.

At first, the American IT experts enthusiastically worked because the money was just too good for them to be concerned how the information was being used by the Trump campaign people who had engaged their services, even though they suspected that the Trump campaign did not have the expertise to use the information with the sophistication that it was being used.

And, subsequently there came a time when it was rather obvious to the Americans ("Russia, if you are listening") that they were providing the information that was allowing 'patriotic Russians' to ply their trade to influence the US 2016 presidential election. But again, the money was just too good for the American IT experts to be concerned that they were assisting Russians to influence an American election, and in so doing they were conspiring against the United States. A sad but true state of affairs.

This aspect of the association between, Zuckerberg personally, the Trump campaign and 'patriotic Russians' has not been the subject of any serious news coverage in the United States until now. That, however, is all about to change, because the activities of the Trump campaign associates who brought the social media micro-targeting experts into the Trump campaign fold (Conway and Bannon) are now under intense scrutiny, and not only within the United States.

Zuckerberg, will be under investigation well into the next decade. And, will have to watch as his Facebook empire is handed over to scavengers, who are gathering in the skies above his dying empire.

​All because Zuckerberg did not possess the ethical wherewithal to understand that social responsibility is as important in business as the accumulation of wealth and power.

The moral shortcomings of Mark Zuckerberg, Conway, Bannon and Trump loom large, but they pale into insignificance compared to the peril that having the personal (psycho-social) data of millions of American and European Facebook users' in the hands of the FSB/GRU poses to our common defense and security.

Remembering that Defense (or security) describes a condition that is a result of the knowledgeable and purposeful establishment and maintenance of protective measures that ensure a state of inviolability from hostile acts or influences of any nature emanating from a domestic or foreign source.

By this definition the Russian meddling in the US presidential election cycle of 2016, and recent attempts uncovered showing their continued involved in our electoral and social interaction processes, especially those involving Facebook, was and is a failure of US national security, a failure of our defense and security apparatus.

The term that identifies the means, the methods and tools that are employed to defeat the establishment and maintenance of a nation's protective measures, short of a full frontal assault, is espionage.

Given the fact that the Russians have in their intelligence/espionage computers, the data of millions of Americans and their closest network of relatives and friends that ought to reside protected by Facebook in secure data protected vaults, and that Facebook profited from that breach that now is being used to threaten the security of the United States, it is time to shut Facebook down.

​The security of the United States depends upon us acting to shut the threat down, now.